Balloon stunt nearly put soldiers at excess risk

Richard Heene and his family are probably having a rough time these days, but at least they’re getting a break from the Colorado Army National Guard.

Aside from facing possible criminal charges, the Heenes may also be forced to pay $10,000 or more in costs incurred by emergency responders and rescue units. But they probably won’t get a bill from the guard.

Media coverage of the alleged hoax that unfolded Thursday has focused on Richard Heene’s apparent quest to be a television star and the exploitation of children in reality television shows. But the most serious underlying issue tied to the event itself may be the fact that the crews of two National Guard helicopters, not to mention the pilots and passengers of two news choppers that were in the air, might have been put unnecessarily at risk.

According to the American Forces Press Service, the Colorado Guard put a UH-60 Black Hawk and a OH-58 Kiowa in the air after the Larimer County Sheriff”s Office requested help from the Air Force.

In a Denver Post report published Sunday, Col. Chris Petty said he flew out in the Black Hawk with a medic and two crew chiefs, thinking, as any good soldier would, that the latest news reports should be taken at face value. Believing that there might be a boy inside the silver Mylar balloon that was hurtling across northern Colorado at thousands of feet, he and his crew were prepared for a high-adrenaline rescue attempt.

He was ready to use the Black Hawk’s hoist in a mid-air rescue, even though he knew it would be an “extreme measure, because it would have been quite dangerous,” Petty told the Post.

By the time he reached the balloon, it was in a slow descent. But since there was no boy inside when the contraption landed, the guard’s work wasn’t over. Petty returned to Buckley AFB, refueled, then headed back out, flying over a 27-square-mile area, searching for a boy’s body for about 90 minutes. Authorities believed the 6-year-old Falcon Henne might have fallen out of the balloon.

And then the news surfaced that the boy had been hiding in the attic.

Now, while investigating the possibility of a hoax, local officials say the Heenes may have to bear the search and rescue costs.

But a spokesman for the Colorado Guard told the Post that calculating the military costs of the misguided rescue operation would be difficult, since the guard’s air crews are always flying — training when not responding to a real incident.

From a military standpoint, last week’s fiasco effectively served as a training exercise, with a touch of realism, that almost turned out be riskier than necessary.